Always looking out for new perspectives on leadership, “Leadership and the Art of Struggle; How Great Leaders Grow through Challenge and Adversity” by Steven Snyder, grabbed my attention because it provided some recommendations on how to adapt and effectively channel energies to address challenges. Let me share some insights.
The “struggle” is the need to adapt to change, handle tensions between competing values and the need to restore balance to your perspective in order to gain leverage and use your energies to effect change. Critical to the success is a leader’s need to:
- Adopt a growth mind-set which acknowledges the need for change (as opposed to a fixed mind-set) which requires you adapt to the new realities
- Become resilient in the face of failure
- Determine where the tension is – between your internal sense of identify vs. Outward relationships, and past traditions versus future aspirations.
- Center your mind, body and spirit,
- Find the support you need.
Once grounded, you’re ready to:
- Reimagine the situation to discover a new creative path
- Reinvest yourself to achieve the goals
- Overcome your blind
- Heal yourself from conflict
- Envision the common ground, and commit to the new vision.
Among the people he focuses on who’ve struggled are Bill Gates (with whom he worked for a while) and Steve Jobs. His focus is on the journey – not a specific achievement – because the world continues to change (as it did for Steve Jobs, especially) and the need for continuous improvement.
What do you think about his approach? Let’s discuss!